Keeping It In The Family

The mild disturbance in the morning was quickly forgotten as there was work to be done. The propaganda mill was running low on fodder, and it chose the easiest topic once again; the newest campaign of liberation from the ills of lower existence.

The High King, Griffin was well apt in the manipulation of the public and he made a wonderful team with his wife, whom he could cultivate and shape in mass media as nothing but a beacon of light, shining above, bringing light to those in the dark.

Griffin made a quick trip to the state-run news center, to talk to the major shareholders, and tell them that he was there to just make small talk, under the guise of a public broadcast short segment, hailing the good work of journalists all over, the true heroes of Ionadis .

The messages to the shareholders were made clear that afternoon, and in the evening news, a quick, last-minute segment was run on how an aggressive neighbor, Methussalah, on the outskirts of their Empire was attacking one of their weaker territories, slowly spoon-feeding them that an attack would be imminent, but it would somehow be self-defense, even though they would strike first.

They were asking for it, after all.

Aeris viewed the broadcast, from her viewing-box , an ornate wooden box that they refused to call a television because any indication or use of science was blasphemous. She was dolled up, wanting to at least be a pretty corpse.

She had spent most of the day with Aelfric, spoiling him, telling him about all the places she had traveled, and he loved her stories. She skipped over the many parts where she killed many people and replaced sad endings with good ones, and Aeris's smile was even brighter when she used euphemisms.

For just one more moment, she wanted him to believe the world was a nice place.

So she told him he had to go to bed early that night, and he didn't want to, but she coaxed him. Always loud with anyone who crossed her path, but with him, it was always soft, the guilt making her weak, and maybe that was why he was so soft and immature for his age.

So she sat, dressed in her favorite outfit, a black dress, a small pink jacket, her curly hair framing her face, dressed like she was on her way to a party, not to her death when her companion walked into her study.

It was dark, the only light coming from the viewing-box , and her companion, Sana, told her it was time to go.

"Sana, you won't return," Aeris said. "None of us are returning."

Sana looked uncomfortable at the statement and fidgeted in her flats. They were a little too loose for her, used shoes, but she still had to dress nicely as the closest aide to the Mother Empress.

Yet she was never given new things.

Just old.

Wearing a white blouse that was a little too tight, and a skirt she had to hem to fit, and black flats that were too loose, Sana stood up straighter and smiled, the lines near her eyes crinkling oh so gently.

Sana was around the same age as Aeris, but stress and the lack of wealth made her look twenty years older, streaks of grey in her black hair, and her brown skin already starting to gain wrinkles.

"You can stay here, and I can go, and the ending will not change," Aeris told her.

"My lady, you are nervous to leave, it is an understandable emotion. You were with the little one all day, yes?"

"Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about," Aeris replied.

Sana smiled.

"I am saying this, as your closest confidant, at least, I hope I am, but, shouldn't you be wearing your official-"

"I will not be needing it where I'm going," Aeris replied. "I just need one thing before I go."

Aeris walked fast, she always had little time to spare, this time was no different, walking with her chin up towards her death. Aeris left, walking through the hallways, Sana trailing behind, dutiful as always.

Sana was one of the few people who could keep up with her fast pace, after years of being her shadow, and she stopped, once they had arrived at the black door.

Sana knew what was inside, she had been told, and believed it, because whenever Aeris opened the door, she heard many whispers, sometimes shouts, and sometimes a friendly voice that would tell her welcome back.

She did not spend long inside, and Aeris returned, The Cloak of the Sun wrapped around her body, eyeing Sana, and Sana knew that she was exposed. Yet she was still doing as she was told because, for her, it was about the principal.

Aeris had given her a chance many times, and Sana had refused, so she decided to play along.

"Sana, the teleporters are going to take me to the Bureau of Defense before I leave? What else is on the agenda?"

"They plan on having a small get-together very late… since you insisted on having the day to yourself," Sana replied, venom in her voice.

Aeris ignored the comment, and walked through the halls, past the pictures of her ancestors, all the liars such as she, and with every corner she turned, there were only two choices left, and neither were good.

She halted, standing in her glowing cape at the top of the main staircase, her living personal taxi-cabs waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, and she turned to look at Sana, the same smile plastered over her face, still unwavering.

"Sana?"

"Yes, m'lady?"

"Would you sacrifice your husband for your children? Your children for yourself?"

The smile fell off of Sana's face and she coughed, disturbed by the question, clasping her fingers together. Her upper lip twitched as she tried to smile again, and told her that such questions were worrying, you must need sleep.

"I have sacrificed my husband, and the sanity of my youngest son so he may live. Would you do that," Aeris asked.

Sana looked at the two men, waiting patiently, blank and serious faces, waiting for her to come down the stairs, and she chuckled nervously and started answering her questions, anything to get her to move down the staircase.

"I don't- I don't know," Sana admitted. "I don't think I could sacrifice a family member for another."

Aeris smiled and nodded, and she began her descent down the stairs, Sana by her side. Sana chalked up her odd questions to nerves, but the questions were so specific she knew that Aeris knew she could see into the future.

Sana told herself she was stupid for ever agreeing to such a stupid plan.

Aeris stopped, halfway down the staircase, and Sana cracked.

Her too-tight blouse popped a button and she glared at her master, tired of the games, the reluctance . Sana's hands trembled and she was more angry than afraid, considering if it would be enough to get rid of her by just pushing her down the staircase, but the various record-spheres hidden in corners of the walls would capture it all.

Aeris looked at Sana, with the same look she gave all her children when they were caught doing something they shouldn't have done, and she spoke in a mocking tone.

"Sana, if you would never sacrifice one family member for another, why would kill your own niece?"

"I, I didn-"

"I know what my grandfather did. My mother told me. So I kept you close. You're so ungrateful, Sana. So wretched."

"You-"

"After everything I've done for you," Aeris screamed. "I've given you every-"

"No, you haven't! You could have set me free, yet you make yourself feel better with your old clothes , all worn and ugly! "

Sana pushed her niece down the stairs, throwing caution into the wind, and she didn't care if she was hung, she didn't care, but her heart sank, as the cape curled around, in a protective cocoon, and Aeris fell down the stairs, not a hair on her harmed.

Sana ran down the stairs, but slipped on the last one, her flats too loose, and screamed, as she and her two co-conspirators tried to pry open the glowing cocoon, but it was no use. The Cape of The Sun was impenetrable, and it was impossible to break.

"We have to get rid of her before Leofric finds out," Sana said. "Just do as we planned."

Aeris's personal teleporters nodded and smiled. The first one, a stocky man with brown hair, and the second, a thin one with black hair did exactly as Leofric instructed them to do.

Their eyes glowed black, and they clasped each other's hands, staring at Sana and Aeris. The runes on the floor pulsed and Sana smiled, thinking that she had gotten her revenge when instead she was sent to die with her.

In the blink of an eye, Sana and Aeris were gone.

In the blink of an eye, Sana was burnt to a crisp, whisked away to the top of Mt.Ignis along with her niece, and they plummeted into it together.

With their job complete, the two teleporters blinked over to Leofric's personal study.

That night, they were one of the first to die out of all the servants, all loose strings needing to be tied.